Domestic appliance



June 19, 1956 R. H. WHYTE DOMESTIC APPLIANCE Filed April 15." 1953 Fig.

O 0 O O O O 0 0 O 0 IN V EN TOR.

Rona/ H. Whyfe BY man His Attorney United States Patent DOMESTICAPPLIANCE Ronal H. Whyte, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General MotorsCorporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application April13, 1953, Serial No. 348,410

2 Claims. (CI. 68-19) This invention relates to a domestic appliance andmore particularly to an arrangement by which the water discharged by anautomatic washer may be used to remove condensed liquid from a laundrydryer.

In modern home laundries it is customary to have an automatic dryer aswell as an automatic washer. Some automatic dryers are provided withsome form of condensing means for the purpose of condensing the mois-'ture driven out from the clothes in the dryer. The purpose of this is toprevent the discharge of hot humid air into the room in which the dryeris located. A receptacle is often provided for catching this condensedliquid. If a floor drain is available it is possible to use a simplehose to drain such a receptacle. However, when it is inconvenient to usesuch a floor drain it has been necessary to either manually remove thereceptacle and discharge its contents or to provide some other means fordisposal of the liquid.

It is an object of my invention to use the pressure of the waterdischarged from the washer to remove the liquid condensed in the dryer.

It is another object of my invention to operate an aspirator means bythe water discharged from an automatic washer and to use the suctionprovided by the aspirator means to draw the liquid condensed from adryer and discharge it in a common stream with the water discharged bythe washer into a stationary tub or other similar means of Waterdisposal.

In the form shown in the drawings, the aspirator means is made in theform of an inverted U-shaped tube capable of hanging on the rim of astationary tub. The part of the tube within the tub is provided with athroat of reduced diameter to form a venturi throat. Extending into thecenter of this throat is the mouth of a suction tube which extends alongthe axis of the vertical portion of the tube and outwardly through aportion of the curved wall surface of the tube. The portion of theU-shaped tube outside the stationary tub forms the pressure inlet of theaspirator means and is connected to the water discharge means of alaundry washing machine by a suitable hose. A smaller hose extends fromthe outer end of the suction tube into the bottom of the liquidcollecting receptacle of the laundry dryer.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanieddrawings wherein a preferred form of the invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view showing in elevation a laundry washing machine havingits discharge outlet connected to the aspirator means hanging over therim of a stationary tub into which the aspirator means dischargestogether with a vertical sectional view of a laundry dryer having a tubeextending from its liquid collecting means to the suction tube of theaspirator means; and

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view of the aspirator means shown inFigure 1.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown a laundry dryer 20 having arotatable drum 22 within a drum chamber. At the bottom of the drumchamber there is provided an air cooled condenser 24 which is cooledsufficiently by air to condense the moisture which is driven out of theclothes in the drum 22. Beneath this condenser 24 is a liquid collectingreceptacle 26. This liquid collecting receptacle 26 is made removable sothat it may be carried and dumped in a suitable drain. Furtherdescription of such a laundry dryer may be found in the McCormickapplications S. N. 217,618, now abandoned, and S. N. 298,566 whichissued on April 24, 1956, as Patent Number 2,742,708. A condensing typeof dryer is also shown in the ONeil Patents 2,334,025 and 2,369,366.

In almost all cases an automatic washer 28 is used to wash the clothesprior to using the dryer 20. For the purpose of this invention any formof washer having a pressure discharge may be used. The washer 28includes hot and cold water pressure inlet connections 30 and 32. Italso includes a discharge hose connection 34 connected to the outlet ofa discharge pump which forces the Water discharged by the washer intothe hose 34. Such a washer is described in the Clark Patent 2,366,236issued I anuary 2, 1945, and the Wallis et al. Patent 2,544,- 867 issuedMarch 13, 1951.

In many homes there is no convenient drain at the floor level. However,a great many homes have some other drain above the floor level intowhich the water may be discharged. In Figure l a stationary tub 36 isgiven as one example of such a means of water disposal. This stationarytub 36 may be supplied with a drain 38 leading to a sewer.

According to my invention I provide an aspirator means 40 having theshape of an inverted U so that it can be hung upon the rim of any tub orcollecting basin. This aspirating means preferably is in the form of aninverted U-tube 42 provided that a necked-in portion 44 in the part ofthe straight side hanging within the tub 36. This necked-in portion 44forms the throat of a venturi which discharges into the outlet end 50.Extending into this throat is the mouth 46 of a suction tube 48 which islocated along the axis of the throat 44. The mouth 46 of the suctiontube 48 is adjacent the outlet end 50 of the U-tube 42. This suctiontube 48 extends through a sealed opening 52 in the outer periphery ofthe curved portion and the U-tube portion 42 as shown in Figure 2.

The opposite end 54 of the U-tube forms the pressure inlet of theaspirator means 40. This opposite end 54 is connected directly to thedischarge end of the water discharge conduit 34 extending from thewasher 28. The suction tube 48 has an inlet end 56 connected by aflexible tube 58 to the bottom of the receptacle 26. Preferably thistube 48 extends into the dryer 20 and is fastened by the bracket 60 tothe upper portion of the receptacle chamber 62 within which thereceptacle 26 is located. The lower end 64 of the tube extendssubstantially to the bottom of the receptacle. The location of the lowerend 64 of the tube 58 adjacent the rear end of the receptacle 26 permitsthe receptacle to be withdrawn like a drawer. The flexible nature 'ofthe tube 58 permits the complete withdrawal of the receptacle 28 withoutdifficulty.

As a result of this arrangement, while the clothes previously washed arebeing dried in the dryer 20 and while the moist air created by thedrying of the clothes has its moisture condensed by the condenser 24 andcollected in the receptacle 26 beneath the condenser 24 the washing ofanother bundle of clothes in the automatic washer 28 will cause thedischarge of water from time to time through the washer pump and waterdischarge conduit 34 to the aspirator means 40. The flow of thedischarge 3 water through the tube 42 into the stationary tub 36 willcause a suction within the throat 44 at the mouth 46 of the suction tube48. This suction will draw the condenser moisture from the receptacle 26through the tube 58 and the tube: 48 so thatnit will be discharged fromthe mouth 46 into the stream of discharge water flowing in the inverted,-Utube 42 to'the common discharge outlet 50 into the stationary tube316,.

This discharge water by the use of a stopper in the drain may hecollected in the tub 36, By removing the stopper it may be dischargedthrough the drain 38 to the sewer. Inasmuch as both the washer and thedryer are automatic in their operation it is highly important that thedraining of the receptacle 26 be automatic since if neglected it mayoverflow,

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosedconstitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted as may come within the scope of the claims whichfollow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. In combination, a laundry washing machine having water inlet meansand water discharge means, a laundry dryer having condensing means andliquid collecting means for condensing and collecting moisture removedfrom the clothes in the dryer, aspirator means having a pressure inletand a suction inlet and a common discharge outlet, conduit meansconnecting said water discharge means and said pressure inlet, andconduit means having its entrance portion extending into contact withportion connected to said suction inlet for removing liquid from saidliquid collecting means by the water discharged from the Washingmachine.

2. in combination, a laundry Washing machine having Water inlet meansand water'discharge means, a laundry dryer having condensing means andliquid collecting means for conducting and collecting moisture removedfrom the clothes in the dryer, aspirator means having a pressure inletand a suction inlet and a common discharge outlet, conduit meansconnecting said Water discharge means and said pressure inlet, andconduit means having its entrance portion extending into contact withthe liquid in said liquid collecting means and its exit portionconnectcd to said suction inlet for removing liquid from said liquidcollecting means by the water discharge from the Washing machine, saidaspirator means being in the form of an inverted U shape capable ofbeing hung upon the rim of a drainage receptacle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,930,284 Reedy et al Oct, 10, 1933 2,093,589 Geldhof et al. Sept. 21,1937 2,587,080 Abresch Feb. 26, 1952 2,607,209 Constantine Aug. 19, 1952

